The 1925 Scopes Trial Transcript Excerpt
Probably the most exciting part of the trial was surprise move by the defense. Darrow put Bryan on the stand as a witness. You usually don’t put one of the lawyers from the other side on the stand.
Roles:
- MALONE - Dudley Field Malone was a divorce lawyer who agreed to defend Scopes during the trial.
- THE COURT - These were the words spoken by John T. Raulston, a popular attorney at the time who served as judge during the trial.
- DARROW - Clarence Seward Darrow was the evolutionary defense lawyer who represented Scopes during the trial.
- BRYAN - William Jennings Bryan was the Christian lawyer who was prosecuting Scopes.
Transcript:
MALONE - Your Honor on this very subject, I would like to say that I would have asked Mr. Bryan - and I consider myself as good a Christian as he isÑevery question that Mr. Darrow has asked him for the purpose of bringing out whether or not there is to be taken in this court only a literal interpretation of the Bible, or whether, obviously, as these questions indicate, if a general and literal construction cannot be put upon the parts of the Bible which have been covered by Mr. Darrow’s questions. I hope for the last time no further attempt will be made by counsel on the other side of the case, or Mr. Bryan, to say the defense is concerned at all with Mr. Darrow’s particular religious views or lack of religious views. We are here as lawyers with the same right to our views. I have the same right to mine as a Christian as Mr. Bryan has to his, and we do not intend to have this case charged by Mr. Darrow’s agnosticism or Mr. Bryan’s brand of Christianity. (A great applause.)
THE COURT - I will pass on each question as asked, if it is objected to.
Mr. Darrow…
Darrow - Mr. Bryan, do you believe that the first woman was Eve?
Bryan - Yes.
Darrow - Do you believe she was literally made out of Adam’s rib?
Bryan - I do.
Where Did Cain Get His Wife?
Darrow - Did you ever discover where Cain got his wife?
Bryan - No, sir; I leave the agnostics to hunt for her.
Darrow - You have never found out?
Bryan - I have never tried to find.
Darrow - You have never tried to find?
Bryan - No.
Darrow - The Bible says he got one, doesn’t it? Were there other people on the earth at that time?
Bryan - I cannot say.
Darrow - You cannot say. Did that ever enter your consideration?
Bryan - Never bothered me.
Darrow - There were no others record-ed, but Cain got a wife.
Bryan - That is what the Bible says.
Darrow - Where she came from you do not know. All right. Does the statement, “The morning and the evening were the first day,” and “The morning and the evening were the second day,” mean anything to you?
Bryan - I do not think it necessarily means a twenty-four-hour day.
Darrow - You do not?
Bryan - No.
Darrow - What do you consider it to be?
Bryan - I have not attempted to ex-plain it. If you will take the second chapter - let me have the book. (Examining Bible.) The fourth verse of the second chapter says:
“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,”
The word “day” there in the very next chapter is used to describe a period. I do not see that there is any necessity for constru-ing the words, “the evening and the morning,” as meaning necessarily a twenty-four-hour day, “in the day when the Lord made the heaven and the earth.”
Darrow - Then, when the Bible said, for instance, “and God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day,” that does not necessarily mean twenty-four hours?
Bryan - I do not think it necessarily does.
Darrow - Do you think it does or does not?
Bryan - I know a great many think so.
Darrow - What do you think?
Bryan - I do not think it does.
Darrow - You think those were not literal days?
Bryan - I do not think they were twenty-four-hour days.
Darrow - What do you think about it?
Bryan - That is my opinion - I do not know that my opinion is better on that subject than those who think it does.
Darrow - You do not think that?
Bryan - No. But I think it would be just as easy for the kind of God we believe in to make the earth in six days as in six years or in 6,000,000 years or in 600,000,000 years. I do not think it important whether we believe one or the other.
Darrow - Do you think those were lit-eral days?
Bryan - My impression is they were periods, but I would not attempt to argue as against anybody who want-ed to believe in literal days.
Darrow - Have you any idea of the length of the periods?
Bryan - No; I don’t.
Darrow - Do you think the sun was made on the fourth day?
Bryan - Yes.
Darrow - And they had evening and morning without the sun?
Bryan - I am simply saying it is a period.
Darrow - They had evening and morning for four periods without the sun, do you think?
Bryan - I believe in creation as there told, and if I am not able to explain it I will accept it. Then you can explain it to suit yourself.
Darrow - Mr. Bryan, what I want to know is, do you believe the sun was made on the fourth day?
Bryan - I believe just as it says there.
Darrow - Do you believe the sun was made on the fourth day?
Bryan - Read it.
Darrow - I am very sorry; you have read it so many times you would know, but I will read it again:
“And God, said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. “And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth; and it was so. “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars also. “And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
Do you believe, whether it was a literal day or a period, the sun and the moon were not made until the fourth day?
Bryan - I believe they were made in the order in which they were given there, and I think in dispute with Gladstone and Huxley on that point -
Darrow - Can not you answer my question?
Bryan - I prefer to agree with Gladstone.
Darrow - I do not care about Gladstone.
Bryan - Then prefer to agree with whoever you please.
Darrow - Can not you answer my question?
Bryan - I have answered it. I believe that it was made on the fourth day, in the fourth day.
Darrow - And they had the evening and the morning before that time for three days or three periods. All right, that settles it. Now, if you call those periods, they may have been a very long time.
Bryan - They might have been.
Darrow - The creation might have been going on for a very long time?
Bryan - It might have continued for millions of years.
Eve and the Serpent
Darrow - Yes. All right. Do you believe the story of the temptation of Eve by the serpent?
Bryan - I do.
Darrow - Do you believe that after Eve ate the apple, or gave it to Adam, whichever way it was, that God cursed Eve, and at that time decreed that all womankind thenceforth and forever should suffer the pains of childbirth in the reproduction of the earth?
Bryan - I believe what it says, and I believe the fact as fully Ñ
Darrow - That is what it says, doesn’t it?
Bryan - Yes.
Darrow - And for that reason, every woman born of woman, who has to carry on the race, the reason they have childbirth pains is because Eve tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden?
Bryan - I will believe just what the Bible says. I ask to put that in the language of the Bible, for I prefer that to your language. Read the Bible and I will answer.
Darrow - All right, I will do that: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman” - that is referring to the serpent?
Bryan - The serpent.
Darrow - (Reading) “and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” That is right, is it?
Bryan - I accept it as it is.
Darrow - And you believe that came about because Eve tempted Adam to eat the fruit?
Bryan - Just as it says.
Darrow - And you believe that is the reason that God made the serpent to go on his belly after he tempted Eve?
Bryan Insists on Bible Being Quoted Verbatim
Bryan - I believe the Bible as it is, and I do not permit you to put your language in the place of the language of the Almighty. You read that Bible and ask me questions, and I will answer them. I will not answer your questions in your language.
Darrow - I will read it to you from the Bible:
“And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou cat all the days of thy life.”
Do you think that is why the serpent is compelled to crawl upon its belly?
Bryan - I believe that.
Darrow - Have you any idea how the snake went before that time?
Bryan - No, sir.
Darrow - Do you know whether he walked on his tail or not?
Bryan - No, sir. I have no way to know. (Laughter in audience).
Darrow - Now, you refer to the cloud that was put in the heaven after the flood, the rainbow. Do you believe in that?
Bryan - Read it.
Darrow - All right, Mr. Bryan, I will read it for you.
Bryan - Your Honor, I think I can shorten this testimony. The only purpose Mr. Darrow has is to slur at the Bible, but I will answer his question. I will answer it all at once, and I have no objection in the world, I want the world to know that this man, who does not believe in a God, is trying to use a court in Tennessee -
Darrow - I object to that.
Bryan - (Continuing) to slur at it, and while it will require time, I am willing to take it.
Darrow - I object to your statement. I am exempting you on your fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on earth believes.
THE COURT - Court is adjourned until 9 o’clock tomorrow morning.
